The structure of Michigan county government – Part 1

Look under your car and tell me something about the
framework you see, and I can tell you some things about how the car will
perform. The same is true for buildings. Describe the internal framework, and a
builder can tell you a lot about how many floors it will support, or how much
stuff you can put in it, or how it will weather a hurricane. The same is true
for organizations.

Some organizations are designed for simple top-down
management; others run on the ingenuity of the staff. Some are simple and
straightforward, while others require a lot of attention to communication and
cooperation. Everything else in the organization hangs on the structure. The
structure defines responsibility and authority, the basics of where revenue
comes from and who determines how it is spent.

If we want to understand how an organization works and
whether it is functioning well, we need to understand a bit about the
structure. For counties in Michigan, the structure is unique and it is important
that we understand it in order to properly analyze how well it functions.

We are all familiar with the typical corporate management
structure. It includes owners, some type of top level manager, sometimes many
levels of managers, and finally the folks who build things, sell them or
provide a service. Typically, we expect local government structures to look the
same, and some do. County government was designed differently, as though it was
intended to operate differently. Our first reaction is to think it is designed
poorly, that it is built for chaos. In reality, it spreads out the power.
Similar to the checks and balances built into our federal government, county
structure forces us to communicate to get things done; it slows the process. In
today’s fast paced world, that seems backward.

However, especially in legislative endeavors, it slows us
down and gives us more opportunities to consider the consequences of our
decisions, and hopefully create laws and services with minimal unintended
consequences which turn out to be counterproductive. In business, we value
quick response to customers. In government services, we also value quick
response and quality service, but in the process of making government policy
decisions, thorough consideration of all facets of the issues is essential to
making good decisions. As we will see, the county structure in Michigan may, in
fact, be the best possible blend of a responsive line structure for service
provision and a deliberative structure for policymaking.